Hello again readers! Dear Berry is here once again with a mailbag full of BlackBerry questions and woes. Today's question comes from a reader who asks:

I purchased a Q10 recently since I've been using BlackBerry for the past 4 years. Of course with the change of models. However, noticed that Q10 I'm unable to save sent & received text messages. This is an important feature that I need, please tell me that I can save important text messages.

With BlackBerry 10 there are a couple of options available for you to save sent and received text messages. First one, is sharing conversations from within the Text Message application. To do this, tap on an individual text message and then long press on the specific text which brings up the action menu. Here you can send via text, email, NFC, Bluetooth or to send to the Remember application. However that will only forward one part of the conversation (i.e. You can share the incoming or outgoing message but not the entire conversation) which means you would have to send each one separately. The other, is by connecting and backing up your device using BlackBerry Link.

My suggestion would be to use a third party application and below are a list of a few with the ability to backup, restore, and save your text messages. Hopefully this is an easier way and offers better functionality for your needs.

SMS Backup - is a handy backup and restore solution that stores your SMS messages on your device or SD Card in XML format or offers the option to clear all as well. As of now MMS support is experimental. You can read the forum thread for more information.

Message X - is a message utility tool that lets you forward, backup, restore, and delete text messages. You can follow the forum thread here.

SyncLion - allows you to automatically archive all your SMS on pre-selected IMAP e-mail accounts, (i.e. Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.). It is a fast backup solution that allows you to save and restore messages whenever you need to.

Exporter - offers the ability to save your SMS, Email, and PIN messages in plain-text format as .txt files for multiple accounts on your device or SD Card which you can read offline and anytime.

Call Notes - saves your incoming and outgoing SMS messages and phone calls to your BlackBerry calendar so you can set a reminder to follow up at a later time. You can find the full review here.

While I'm sure there are more SMS applications available, these are a few to help you get started.

See you next time!

Have a question about BlackBerry etiquette? Need advice on how to cope with your BlackBerry addiction? Dear Berry has you covered and there's no question too big or problem too small. Submit any of your BlackBerry woes by email to dearberry@crackberry.com or on Twitter @DearBerryCB.

Reader comments

Dear Berry: How do I save text messages on BlackBerry 10

Just a note that Message X has a bunch of other cool functions is definitely worth looking at. I hope that with the release of OS10.2 it will be able to operate in the background as a headless app like txtfwd from OS7 used to do.

"However that will only forward one part of the conversation (i.e. You can share the incoming or outgoing message but not the entire conversation) which means you would have to send each one separately."

Question for Dear Berry: Do the third party apps facilitate being able to send a whole text message string instead of individual text messages? That's why I love BBM as I can forward the whole conversation.

None needed: go to the text app, and in a similar fashion to BBM, select the overflow menu (three dots on the bottom-right corner) and select "copy chat." The entire conversation in text will be copied to your clipboard, which you can then paste wherever you like.

I do that and it let's me copy the whole chat, but then it doesn't let me paste it anywhere. Not in docs, not in an email.. no where. And then it sometimes freezes as a bonus after trying again. Any thoughts that can do it for free?

If these emails were already on your device (i.e. you set up your email accounts on your phone prior to receiving them), then outside of you archiving/deleting/moving the messages, they should stay on your phone "forever."

If you're trying to access email messages that you received prior to setting up your email accounts, that's going to require you to delete the account and re-add it in the account settings menu. After you put in your login credentials, don't hit next but instead look at the bottom of the screen and select "advanced," there are a lot of options to modify here that you can pretty much ignore except for the very bottom where it asks for sync interval. Set it to the interval that you desire, recent updates to the OS have increased it past 90 days to "forever," but this depends on what OS version you're using.

In the future, if you ever want to have the option to sync messages from a long time ago, always make sure to go into the advanced settings to adjust the sync internal again, which is important if for whatever reason you have to wipe your phone and can't/don't want to use a restored backup file from BlackBerry Link.

you need at least OS 10.1. Then here is the path:
1 open the BlackBerry Hub.
2 click overflow button (bottom right with the three vertical dots), then "Settings. You get to a screen named "BlackBerry Hub Settings"
3 click on "Email accounts". You get to a screen named "Email accounts"
4 click on the desired account. You get to a screen named "Edit Account".
5 bottom button "Edit Account" then bottom button "Advanced".
6 dropdown menu "Sync Timeframe":
- 1 day
- 3 days
- 7 days
- 14 days
- 30 days
- Forever

Great tips, Dear CrackBerry, though you do (sorta) have the option to copy the entire chat to store/save elsewhere. When you open the conversation itself, instead of selecting and holding for the overflow menu on one chat message, if you tap the overflow menu (three dots) in the right corner while the keyboard is down (on the Z10), it'll give you the option to copy the entire chat to the clipboard. From there you can paste it into an email message, the Remember app, word document, etc...

Obvious downside though is that because it's text only you'll miss out on pics and other media.

I tried this on my Z10 and it worked for short text chats but would not give me a paste option for longer ones. Ever since I did the last OS update my cell freezes if I try and send a file of any sort to a contact that has a long chat or one I've set on priority.

Guys please help me with this problem,
I got BlackBerry Z10 and every time I plug it to my computer and run the BB link it gave me can't communicate with the device massage.
I updated the link to the newest one and I deleted the old one before installing the new one. I cant back up my device and I cant synchroniz it with the old one.

CrackBerry is in no way Affiliated with BlackBerry. We take pride in our unbiased content, however do occasionally receive free products from vendors that we review or discuss. For more info click here.